IT Projects Failings Under Labour Cost £26 Billion

An investigation by The Independent has revealed that the Labour Government in the UK has wasted almost £26 billion on IT projects that were either delayed, scrapped or went over-budget.

In its report, the newspaper unearthed 10 most ‘notorious’ IT projects undertaken by the government, whose total cost was more than half of the budget for education in Britain last year.

The £12.5 billion NHS IT program emerged at the top of the "list" of the Labour government's IT failings, as further evidence of the failure of the project came to light.

It was found that only 160 out of the 9000 health organisations are using the electronic patient records that were delivered under the scheme. Fresh National Audit Office figures suggested that millions of pounds were spent on legal fees, which came out to be £39.2 million.

Other failed IT projects include a project that was designed to enable the Department for Transport to save £51 million but instead DfT ended up spending £81 million.

A project focused on providing subsidies to farmers cost the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs around £350 million and British farmers ended up paying around £1 billion out of their pockets.

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The Independent also reported that the Parliament spending watchdog, National Audit Office had labeled the blotched IT projects as ‘fundamentally flawed’ and has accused several ministers for ‘stupendous incompetence’ in managing the projects.